Romania’s Prime Minister says the country’s Cantacuzino Institute will carry out 1,000 COVID-19 tests a day, double the current number.

Ludovic Orban visited the medical research facility in Bucharest on Thursday and said the government’s “objective is to increase the testing capacity, so we can test as much as is necessary.”

The number of confirmed corobnavirus cases in Romania crossed 10,000 on Thursday, with 527 deaths from resulting from COVID-19.

Orban said Romania currently had a maximum capacity of 8,000 tests a which are conducted in 61 places.

Early on in the coronavirus pandemic, Romanian authorities came under fire for the relatively low number of tests that were carried out.

The number of tests has risen to around 6,000 a day. On Wednesday, a total of 106,357 tests had been carried out, including 6,000 in the last day.  

The Cantacuzino Institute was established in 1921, is dedicated to microbiology and immunology.

Orban said it was planning a number of new projects, some funded with European Union money.

It will resume the production of an anti-flu vaccine, he said.